Are our attention spans really getting shorter?

r/

I’m watching YouTube and lately I have been getting aggravated on the overwhelming amount of ads. The video will be in for 3 minutes and there’s a 90 second ad. I don’t mind a few ads because I know I don’t pay for YouTube premium so this is what I have to do to watch it for free, but my video didn’t even start bagger I get the ad, like show it at the beginning and then start the video. Sometimes if an ad pops up within the first few seconds I just turn the video completely. And I can’t even skip it. 90 seconds isn’t long at all but when it comes to a commercial it seems like a lifetime. Before I used to watch 3 minute long commercials with no issue. Gave me time Get a drink, snack, bathroom break, etc. but now it’s just ads everywhere. YouTube, TikTok,IG, the gas station, the bus, my uber…every where I look it’s something being shoved in my face and most of the time it’s something I don’t even care about. But I don’t think my attention span is getting shorter I think it’s just overloaded with so much information in short time periods.

Comments

  1. EdgelordMcMemester Avatar

    It possibly could be getting shorter, but this isn’t a good way to gauge it. Why would anyone want to pay attention to an annoying ad? Of course you would want it to be as short as possible. Or is that not what you’re asking?

  2. in-grey Avatar

    You’re equating patience with attention span

  3. sofuca Avatar

    There was a new ceo for YouTube about a year ago, since then ads have increased.

    Also the skip function has been removed on many ads

    You can get a cheap subscription from many websites that place you in turkey or India for example but you risk being booted off.

    Edit – I guess it’s mainly due to the continued enshitification of the internet.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

  4. Mindless_Fruit_2313 Avatar

    What was the middle thing?

  5. Dark_World_Blues Avatar

    You’re fed up with ads, which is very normal. I don’t know what device you’re using, but maybe installing an ad blocker would help.

  6. Daddy_Bear29401 Avatar

    I don’t think it’s the ads. It’s the short video format.

  7. Le_Baked_Beans Avatar

    I use adblocker now my time is too valueable to sit through those 60+ ads but to answer your question slowly but yes our attention spans are getting shorter.

    Watching slow paced or old movies really shows the shift in attention span Once upon a time in hollywood for example.The first 2 viewings the pace didn’t bother me but watching it years later now, it took some adjusting to get used to the movies pace and its not even that slow

  8. junebright_ Avatar

    I don’t think our attention spans are shrinking, I think they’re just overstimulated. There’s so much content being thrown at us constantly that our brains don’t get a second to breathe. It’s like we’ve been trained to expect everything fast, so anything that interrupts that rhythm (like a long ad) suddenly feels unbearable, even if it’s only 90 seconds. It’s not about patience anymore, it’s about mental overload.

  9. Nihilistic_River4 Avatar

    Yes, much shorter, with youtube and everything in short 3 to 5 minute bursts, there’s…

  10. Dirtbagdownhill Avatar

    People used to build model ships inside of bottles

  11. IvoryMonocle Avatar

    Ads annoy you because they aren’t funny anymore ads actually once upon a time were enjoyable and entertaining everything about sales is so cold and corporate now that it’s become a nuisance

  12. morts73 Avatar

    Mine is bad. It will take me 3 days to watch a 2 hour movie. I need to improve my focus and concentrate on one thing at a time instead of multitasking.

  13. ryrhino00 Avatar

    what was your question?

  14. C-Nor Avatar

    I feel like my attention span is ge

  15. guyinoz99 Avatar

    I looked at a turkey after the first sentence.
    Could you repost it please?
    But in a tl:dr format. Than